<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>The Simplicity Pattern of Love by Missy</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24136897">The Simplicity Pattern of Love</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/pseuds/Missy'>Missy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Laverne &amp; Shirley (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Anxiety, F/M, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff, Friendship, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Parenthood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 17:36:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,161</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24136897</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/pseuds/Missy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Laverne wants to be a mother.  Lenny worries he'll BECOME his mother...</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Laverne DeFazio/Lenny Kosnowski</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Simplicity Pattern of Love</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Futsin/gifts">Futsin</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A part of what we're dubbing "Parentverse" between Futsin and I.  Sort of precedes everything and yet follows "L for Effort" in posting order.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lenny’s biggest fear is that he’ll become his mother.</p><p>He doesn’t say that out loud.  He doesn’t want to scare Laverne off.  She wants kids, he can't imagine anyone else ever being the mom to his, and he doesn’t want her to know he’s afraid.  Afraid he’ll lose his temper or be mean somehow or hurt them, just like his… </p><p>Laverne’s the kind of woman who was meant to be a mother.  Lenny is the kind of guy who was meant to be…</p><p>….Not a welder.  He’s never had dreams or ambitions.  Not like Squiggy, who had been planning their futures as swinging bachelors slash millionaires when they were in kindergarten.  He’d imagined himself dying in the gutter, actually.  </p><p>But that wasn’t what was happening now.</p><p>Now she was sitting there with her hand on his knee, and now they were headed off to bed.  When she asked if he’d like to have a baby, he looked at her – all of the things that make her uniquely her, from her gingered blond hair to her overbite to her long, long legs.</p><p>He said yes because of all of the things she was – all of the things he knew about her.  He wanted to look at a kid and see her green eyes and her wicked smile.  And he wanted to know that part of him had gone into the creation of that smile, too.</p><p>***</p><p>She told him with lasagna.   It was the only thing she knew how to cook, and Lenny – whose palate had been formed by latchkey childhood of Bosco and candy – would eat a million plates of it before either of them decided to sharpen their skills with something different.  </p><p>Normally they lived off of take-out, too tired to cook at the end of the day.  She couldn’t stop grinning at him, with a little lovesick look in her eyes, the kind of which he hadn’t seen since their wedding day.</p><p>He helped her clear the table and put away the cloth.  He was contemplating emptying the trash when she said, “so how do you feel about December?”</p><p>Lenny stopped and stared at her.  It was a weird question to ask, but he tilted his head and said, “it’s…nice?  Christmas is then!”  </p><p>She smiled.  “Yeah.  But two weeks before that, we’re gonna be busy.”</p><p>Stupidly, he wondered if Frank had invited them to go to Brooklyn with him for the winter.  Then his eyes widened, his brain whirring into gear.</p><p>It was May.  December was eight months away.</p><p>Lenny rose from the table.  “Are you…?”</p><p>She turned toward him and smiled, tears in her eyes.  “You’re a smart guy for someone who used to think butterflies were made of Land O’ Lakes,”</p><p>“Squiggy used to say you can spread them on toast,” he said thickly, and crossed over to kiss her.</p><p>Then he kissed her and, as always, when he kissed her the world went out of focus.  After the embrace, she smiled and tilted her head, giving him one quick nod.  </p><p>“Laverne,” he said, his voice rough and soft.  Tears dripped down his nose and she reached up to brush them away.  In reply, his knuckles gently brushed down her abdomen, then spread out and held her there, still, as he buried his face in her neck.  Her hand found his and stroked along his middle finger, playing with his wedding band.  All of the love he felt threatened to burst free from his lungs in sobs, but he held it in, took it in, and kept her close.</p><p>This was, as Squiggy had once told him, real life stuff.</p><p>***  </p><p>Lenny did what any husband did during the seven and a half months that followed.  He held Laverne’s head when she threw up.  He helped her shop for baby stuff.  He learned how to diaper dolls and support fragile necks.  He rubbed her feet and back and neck and she rubbed his other parts.  The baby grew and shifted and moved under his hand, in a way that would have been scary, had the doctor not told him it was supposed to do that.  </p><p>And the rest of the world kept going – he took her to Skolneck Pond for the Fourth of July, reminiscing about their most private anniversary with a laugh and a kiss.  There was their second Thanksgiving and second Halloween together, candy-coated in memories.</p><p>He was, the whole time, scared out of his mind.</p><p>In the waiting room it was mostly him and Squiggy.  Shirley was pacing wildly nearby, and Frank was sleeping.  Lenny, meanwhile, was fairly confident he’d never sleep again.</p><p>When the nurse arrived for him, Squiggy grabbed him in a bear hug.  “Len,” Squiggy said.  “I just want you to know…you deserve to have a kid who ain’t a half-fish devil beast.”</p><p>“Aww, gee.  I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” Lenny said.</p><p>“When’ve I ever steered you wrong?”</p><p>"You pushed me out a window,” Lenny muttered.</p><p>“And I did that because I love you,” said Squiggy.  He held Lenny’s head with his ridiculously-strong-for-a-guy-that-short-guy-arms and squeezed Len once, hard.  Then he pushed Lenny away, because even though they’re in a hospital he doesn’t wanna look too fruity.  But Squiggy sniffled and then melodramatically pointed a finger in the direction of the maternity ward.  “Go see your spawn.”</p><p>Lenny went – he wasn’t  born leader, after all.  When he saw Andy for the very first time – a little red-faced bundle tucked into his wife’s arm with a thatch of blond hair and baby blue eyes and delicate, long fingers – something in him grows warm and soft and breaks open.  </p><p>He fell to his knees beside the bed and Laverne pets his head with her free hand, not once complaining about the grease in it.  He was too afraid to hold him, or ask to hold him, in that first instant.  </p><p>Laverne – who was strong and warm and still the girl who could outrun him on the baseball diamond or outdance him any day of the week – was the one who held Andy out, half-making him do it.  “Gonna have to get used to it,” she pointed out, and her eyes were thunder and joy and sweetness and darkness.</p><p>Lenny held the baby to his chest and looked down at Andy, who examined him back, blue eyes wise somehow.  Everything inside of Lenny seemed to melt.  <i>How could my mom hurt me when I was this small?</i> he thought.   The fact that the thought crossed his mind at all made him realize just how much he loved his son already, and that he’d never follow in her footsteps.</p><p>“What do you want to call him?” Laverne asked.</p><p>Well, he’d won the coin toss. “Andy,” he said.  “Andrew,” he corrected.</p><p>“Andrew Fabrizio,” she said happily.  </p><p>She kissed Lenny’s cheek. </p><p>That was how families were made, he realized, never having been part of one before this, not really.  </p><p>Just like that.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>